Sugar and Smiles
by TENDERvanilla
Summary: -AU- What becomes of an Ordinary Joe trying to get somewhere in life and the cute patissiere down the street, who seems all sugar and smiles, makes his heart run a thousand miles. NaruHina. Oneshot.


**A/N**: Regular disclaimers apply.

*Egg tarts often found in Chinese restaurant. The center is a bright yellow, not unlike an egg yolk, but it is actually egg custard in flaky a pie crust. Refer to Wikipedia if it's still unclear as to what it is.

**The currency ryo goes in accordance with the Japanese Yen.

***_Karepan_ means curry bread.

Um, hi everyone. First of all, I want to thanks everyone who favorite'd and reviewed "Sugar and Smiles." Although it is my first NaruHina fic, I have already been a long time fan. And I think of all my fics, it's my favorite. :)

I have edited this chapter a bit, and added in an extra conversation, but to those who have already read it, there's nothing big that has changed. Thanks again everyone, and enjoy.

* * *

The first time Naruto visits, it's purely because of misfortune.

After he had gotten ambushed by his landlord (resident "Ero-Senin," everybody calls him) for eluding his rent fees that morning, received quite an earful from Tsunade-baachan because he had forgotten to hand in his report (three months due now), and just when he thinks there's nothing quite like ramen to smooth out a rough day, old man Teuchi had to be sick, leaving him frustrated and despairingly ramen-less.

And it's just his luck today that while he's outside, miffed and stomach painfully empty, drips are falling onto his face. Slowly at first, then turning into an outright shower.

Panicking and cursing, his eyes dart around for some shelter, until it finally catches onto a shabby little pastry shop a stone's throw away, the display window gleaming like a beacon of light.

The rain's coming down in sheets, and Naruto splashes across the street, rainwater wetting the ends of his jeans, his shirt, into the bakery like an anxious puppy. He shivers and shakes off some of the dripping rain, causing a wrinkled old prune that was exiting to click her tongue disapprovingly.

"_Irashaimase_," he hears a voice like a chime through the torrential rain outside.

Naruto slowly turns into the direction of the cash counter, staring at this pretty young thing with a soft face, cascading midnight hair, and eyes as white and pure and warm as the bread she bakes. He notices a bump peeking out underneath her apron. She glows with her pregnancy, her cheeks rosy and her mouth carved into a smile.

She's looking straight at him with the ends of her lips innocently curved upwards, like he did not just come in and get water everywhere on the floorboards and pissed off the only (buying) customer for the day, and Naruto thinks he'll have a hard time turning her down if she asks him to buy out the store before closing time.

He could still feel her gaze on him, and decides he should probably at least look around and nonchalantly meanders to the cases of sweets on display, even though his sweet tooth shows no signs of desire.

It looks like slow day today for the bakery, with only the rain outside to fill the silence. The baskets of baguettes only half-empty. Dozens of buns stand still on the shelves. White cakes decorated with pale roses and cupcakes the color of mocha still visible inside the displays cases, like dolls waiting to be bought.

Naruto figures he might as well do the girl a favor.

His eyes drift from éclairs smothered with chocolate, cream-filled pies, and cookies the size of his head. He idly wonders if she bakes them all herself. After scanning all the assorted pastries and sweets, Naruto is mildly disappointed. Something is missing amidst the powdered puffs and meringue.

_Egg tarts_.

The sunny, yellow egg custard among the cloud of flaky puff pastry was nowhere to offset the lavishly decorated but bland cakes.

"I could whip some up for you, if you'd like."

He tears his eyes away from the log of jelly roll in front of him to regard the girl at the counter.

"Really? You'd do you that?"

She nods and beams from ear to ear, and suddenly the room's a bit warmer despite his wet socks, and he's got this longing ache in his belly. It must be a sudden crave for some egg tarts.

"If, of course, you're willing to wait a bit."

Naruto peers out the window, the rain still rushing to the earth in hordes.

"I've got time." It's not like he's got someone waiting for him, anyway. And he plops himself down on a small chair at a table wear the window.

She disappears for a while, and he hears all this mixing and clanking, and briefly questions whether she should really be doing all that work with a baby on the way.

She reemerges with a mug of steaming hot chocolate a little later, and sets it on the table in front of him.

"You must be cold from being so wet, um…"

"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

She breaks out into friendly smile.

"Naruto-kun. This should warm you up while you're waiting."

He decides he likes his name on her tongue. After being yelled at so many times today (or maybe in general), her voice is smoother than the cream in her pastries.

"Thanks, uh…"

"Hinata."

A pretty name. For a pretty girl.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan," he says with a flourish, and sips his hot chocolate with the tiny marshmallows floating on top of it.

She blushes prettily and looks out the window, sighing.

"Slow day today?" Naruto asks.

She takes her eyes away from the window, looks dejectedly at the wooden floorboards for a half a second, and returns her gaze to him.

"Well, it's more like this…everyday." She gives a wane little upturn of her lips.

"Oh. Sorry," he says, not exactly sure what he's sorry at. He scornfully thinks about the new, flashy place that recently opened, boasting ice cream and sandwiches in addition to pastries.

"Are you the owner?"

"No, but I might as well will be, I'm always the only one here!" She laughs, like a melody, and it trickles from his ears to his toes, warming him more than the hot chocolate ever could.

A sharp _ding!_ sounds from the kitchen, prompting her to rush back over there.

Hinata comes back from the kitchen bearing a tray of a dozen steaming egg tarts each the size of his palm, their centers a rich golden surrounded by a light crust.

"Try one! First one's free." She sets the tray in front of him.

Still marveling at the egg tarts, he reaches for one of the piping hot tarts and, without even caring to cool it down a bit, takes a bite, one that engulfs the outer crust and a good portion into the center custard.

And it's heaven on his tongue. Light and flaky, and the custard a perfect balance between sweet and rich.

"It's…" Naruto chews quickly, and then swallows, the heat going all the way down to his stomach.

Hinata looks at him with an eager expression.

"It's really hot!" He lets out a long breath to cool his scorched mouth.

Hinata giggles. "So does that mean you'll be taking some?"

"I'll take them all!"

She beams at him in delight before her face drops, and she brings a finger to her lips pensively.

"Something wrong?"

"Well, it's just that we don't usually sell egg tarts, so I wouldn't know how much to charge."

"What!?" Naruto says, almost scandalized that such gems should be hidden away. "You should start! I bet people would come in crowds for this!"

"Really?" she asks, with a hopeful look in her eyes that makes Naruto want to promise that they will. Even if he has to buy them all himself.

She stares down at the pastries once again, and extends them towards him.

"I guess it can't be helped. Naruto-kun, please take them as a token of my appreciation."

He blinks, incredulous. "W-wait, I can't do that!"

"Please." She regards him with fire. With resolve. Like she's just got this brilliant idea that'll save the ailing bakery.

"O-okay, then. I guess if you're offering…" Naruto would have laughed at the irony.

"_Arigatou gozaimasu_! You've given me new hope for the bakery, I can only give you these return." She bows low at the waist, and proceeds to the counter to box all eleven remaining egg tarts up.

Hinata daintily hands him the white box, perfectly tied with curly pink ribbon, and looks out the window again, remarking at the clear night now that the rain stopped.

"It is a getting a bit late. Are you going to head home soon, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, I should…" he trails off, yawning. But his brain anchors him to where he stands. "Hey wait, are you really going to close up shop all by yourself? Are you sure you'll be alright?"

He glances at the bulge underneath her apron, and she instinctively brings her hands up to it.

"I'm…not exactly going to close up right away. I'll be fine, don't worry!"

"Okay…" he says, still unconvinced.

"Please come again!" And Hinata bows again.

When the girl isn't looking, Naruto places a few ryo into the jar labeled "Tips" before leaving.

The first time Naruto visits, it's purely because of misfortune.

* * *

The second time Naruto visits, it's for the egg tarts.

Without ramen, he had gorged himself on the treats the night before. And now he's back again, even though Ichiraku was open today, and he hadn't nearly eaten as many bowls as he would have.

Immediately, he sees that it's different today.

People are actually coming in at the same rate they're coming out, and customers aren't just comprised of a cantankerous old lady and a troublemaker, either. There's actually a line in front of the register. A line of three people, but that's a start.

She notices him from the doorway, waving to him while she rings up a customer. She looks a little tired, with faint dark rings around her eyes. He has a fleeting feeling that she did not leave the bakery last night.

Naruto notices that everyone in line is picking off from this one tray on the counter. A new product, they're murmuring about.

He glances over.

_Egg tarts._

They're _his_ egg tarts. For a hundred ryo a piece.

And there's only one left, until a snot-nosed brat standing in line with his mother before him makes a grab for it.

Naruto growls lowly, and almost wants to knock it out of his hands. Fight him for it, if he must.

The line fades away. It's just him and Hinata again.

She smiles her cute smile that she always does for him, like he's someone special and not just Uzumaki Naruto, who never turns anything in or gets anything right.

"I told you, didn't I," he grins. "I told you they'd come for your egg tarts."

She nods happily. "I didn't realize they'd sell off this fast."

"Yeah, and now there aren't any left," he sighs dejectedly.

"Don't worry," she says, as she pulls another white box from underneath the counter. "I saved some, just for you."

He peers into the box. Another dozen, still warm.

"Really? Thanks, Hinata-chan!" And he flashes her his thousand-watt smile as he reaches into his froggy coin purse and hands her the proper amount due.

"Oh, it's on me."

"You can't let me take all of these for free!"

"Well, you were the one who said I should do this, so I owe it all to you, Naruto-kun…"

"At least let me pay for half. The owner'd probably freak if she knew you were giving them away."

She hesitates for a moment, and finally agrees to take the money, the cash register ringing as she rings up twelve egg tarts for the price of six.

"Ne, how come you didn't sell these before," Naruto wonders out loud, selecting a tart from the box and taking a bite.

"I suppose it's because nobody ever asked. And the owner can be a little conservative sometimes. She says she likes them to be like porcelain dolls. Like they're almost too pretty to eat."

Naruto gives a furtive grin . "Makes you kind of wonder if she even wants you to eat them since they might not taste so great."

Hinata has to grace to actually blush. But Naruto could see the hand that flies over her lips to hide a small smile.

"W-well, some people's view of how a cake should be differs."

"Yeah? How do you think a cake should be?" Naruto asks, curious.

Hinata places a finger to her lips for a moment in thought.

"A cake…should really just make people happy. Whenever you first lay your eyes on a cake, it should bring an indescribable joy, because the occasion mattered and is so grand that was brought alive into a magnificent cake. And whenever you bite into it, it just makes you want to savor the taste and the moment, you know? I think…that is what cakes and bakers are for. To make people happy."

Naruto nods understandingly, and finishes off the tart in his hand. He chews thoughtfully for a moment, before reaching into the box again.

"Here, Hinata! You should have one. I bet you haven't had one all day, and you look kind of dead on your feet."

She graciously accepts one, and after taking bite, examines the gold center carefully as she evaluates the taste of her own egg tarts.

"I guess…I guess in between all of the chocolate and white cream, it does add a little color, doesn't it?"

Naruto couldn't agree more.

"Makes you pretty happy, right?"

* * *

The third time Naruto visits, he's not quite sure if it was for the egg tarts anymore.

He had a rough day today, sighing every so once in a while and idly stirring his tea with the sugar spoon with his head propped up on one hand at the familiar table near the window.

A half-eaten egg tart lays forgotten as Hinata bustles around with a few customers.

He hardly notices when it finally quiets down, and she takes the seat right across from him.

"Hard day?"

Naruto numbly nods, looking down at the table.

"What's wrong?" she asks so softly that Naruto just had to look up at the sincerity and concern written all across her delicate face.

He could tell her everything. How work with Tsunade was really getting nowhere. How his landlord had threatened to evict him for evading this rent fees again (but he's sure Ero-Senin wouldn't do that). About how sometimes he thinks life can be so depressing and exhausting and he still has to grin and bear through it all, just because _life's a bitch._ And how sometimes he just wishes there's something to come home to instead of instant ramen, which always leaves him hungry an hour later.

"Oh, you know. Just crap at the office with Tsunade, that's all."

"I see." She reaches across the table and places a solacing hand on his own. It's warm and smooth. Not a single callous.

"Hey, Hinata?"

"Hm?"

"Do you ever…feel really alone?"

She retracts her hand to her lap. He finds himself missing the warmth that she offered.

"Sometimes. But you know," she looks down tenderly to the bump visible underneath her dress without her apron. "I'm never really alone.

"And whenever you're here, you're never alone, either, Naruto-kun!"

* * *

The next time, Naruto doesn't even have to go to the bakery. And he doesn't even _think_ about egg tarts anymore.

When Naruto ditched Tsunade early that afternoon, he was surprised to find her bearing a picnic basket, waiting outside in front.

"The owner came around, and she let me have the day off today. So I decided to pay you a visit instead, and take you out to lunch."

It almost feels as if he's got a wife waiting for him. But he mentally kicks himself and smothers all further thoughts and tells himself to _dream on, she's got a kid on the way_.

So here they are, in the center of Inokashira Park on a creaky wooden bench, sitting in a comfortable silence while he's sprawled out munching on a sandwich and she sips on a carton of grape juice.

Naruto's eyes wander from the children playing over by the lake, to the buildings over in the distance, to the trees whispering in the occasional breath of wind. They roam, until they finally land on her.

It's nice, he thinks, to see her in something else other than a pallid apron. Her breezy yellow sundress skirts around her creamy skin and the thin straps of the dress that bare her shoulders let the wind to thoroughly caress her.

And then it came to his attention. Maybe for the first time since he's known her.

He doesn't know if it's got something to do with her being pregnant, or if she's just like that, but he notices.

She's got some really big boobs.

He tries to divert his attention away onto something more respectable, like his sandwich. But still.

"Hey, Hinata? How far along are you?"

She sets down the juice box.

"Um…About four months…today, actually," she says with a happy smile on her face. Like she's proud to have made it this far.

"Yeah? How's the father," Naruto asks. The lucky bastard. "Now that I think about it, you never seem to talk about him much."

"O-oh. That's because…I'm not with him."

Oh. He—wait, what? Naruto's mind starts to reel.

"Hinata?"

"He left. He used to come by the bakery often. A _karepan_ everyday. And then he stopped coming a few weeks before I…found out," she says, her voice a touch of melancholy, but he hears her love all the same.

Which makes him hate the bastard even more.

"You…remember what he looks like?" Naruto has a crazy mind to just maybe beat this jerk in and make him come groveling back to Hinata.

"Onyx eyes and jet black hair. Arrogant." Hinata says with a small laugh.

Naruto can't bring himself to chuckle with her.

She looks into his eyes, so full of pity and heartbreak and anguish for her. All those feelings that she could never bring herself to feel against the man who left her.

But she presses one of her hands to his cheek and smiles. He smells he vanilla and sugar and touch of cinnamon, and he doesn't ever want her to leave. Nor does he ever want to leave on her.

"Don't worry, Naruto. He's left me with a beautiful baby on the way. And…that's more than what I could ever ask for."

Maybe he doesn't have to beat his guy within an inch of his life.

Maybe Hinata can just do with better.

* * *

He doesn't visit the bakery one day.

Tsunade keeps him back for skipping out on all those papers that he should have done instead of playing hooky.

(But he doesn't regret it. Ever. Playing hooky with Hinata, that is. He vaguely thinks back to that day, and can still smell vanilla and cinnamon.)

It rains that day, like the heavens crying pity on him. Somewhere nearby he hears honks and a scream. And a little later, the sirens of an ambulance.

Crazy drivers.

* * *

Naruto immediately rushes over to the bakery the day after.

And he is appalled to find not the smiling, gentle Hinata, but a stern, sharp-faced elderly lady that carried herself with a haughty air at the cash register, counting money.

The owner, he suspects.

The place was nearly empty. No egg tarts on the counter. No customers demanding them.

"Where's Hinata?" He demands, quite forcefully actually, as if the elder lady was the one that took her away.

"She's not here today. She's been hospitalized," the woman says, not once looking up away from the wad of bills in her hand.

"Hospitalized?" Naruto could feel the color drain from his face. "But she's not—"

"She was involved in an accident at the intersection, that silly girl. Chasing after a leaving customer in the rain, all because of three hundred ryo of missing change and a dropped pacifier. Doesn't she know that it's their own fault if they forget their change? Less for them means more for us," the woman scoffs, and Naruto clenches his hand tightly.

"_Don't_ talk about her like that," Naruto hisses hotly.

"Insolent brat, I am her superior. I can talk about her in whatever ways I want."

"You don't know anything, do you?" His eyes are burning, and his palms are stinging. His knuckles are cracking. "You don't know that she's been keeping this place afloat, all by herself, working tirelessly, even in her condition?"

And he rushes out before he can't control himself any longer.

Standing out in the rain cools down his temper, but Naruto cannot fight the sickening feeling in his stomach.

* * *

Naruto comes back four days later, when he can finally see Hinata reorganizing shelves and wiping down the counters. All the while with an arm wrapped around her now flat tummy, like she's searching for a missing warmth. A faded bruise is visible on her left calf, still glaring on her alabaster skin.

He flinches at it. His worst fears are confirmed.

It's late, and the tray of egg tarts is nothing more but crumbs. The customers have all cleared out.

The door's bells chimes when he opens it and steps in, catching a glance from Hinata.

She slowly lifts her eyes to him, and smiles this haunting thing that doesn't reach her eyes.

"Irashaimase," she nearly whispers, her voice so fragile, it sounds like it would shatter any second.

Naruto approaches her slowly. Step by step. She is like an injured doe, and the last thing he wants is to scare her or break her and make her irreparably damaged.

When he's in front of her, his hands on her shoulders and she can feel the heat from his body, she looks into his azure eyes, her lips parted and unsure of what he was going to go next.

Worry is etched all on his face. His brow furrowed in deep concern.

He stares straight into her eyes. Her eyes that were mysterious and exotic and usually so warm but now look so lost.

Naruto licks his dry lips.

"Are you…going to be okay?"

A second that feels like an eternity passes by, and Naruto prays to whomever up above, that she doesn't push or swat him away.

Eternity passes, and she finally throws her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest for the warmth and support that Hinata's always needed and gave, but never received. She sobs and cries tears she's keeping down since forever.

Naruto, he just holds on. Presses her velvety body against him (closer, now that there's being between them and the little bump is no longer there to offer her comfort), and holds onto her for dear life. Because if he doesn't, she'll drown, and this girl who is some kind of wonderful might be lost forever.

He lifts her at her knees and carries her (like the bride she never got to be) out of the empty bakery, while he smashes the lights switch off with his foot and slams the door closed.

He carries her home. To his home, which is a dingy little apartment that's a few months past its dues and littered with empty instant noodle cups and sport magazines, but that doesn't matter right now. Because all she needs right now is a home that doesn't haunt her, doesn't remind her of what life has taken away from her.

And they both lay on the tiny couch in the dark with only the soft moonlight filtering through the curtains, Hinata a broken mess, and Naruto murmuring "It's okay, it'll be alright," into the shell of her ear while stroking the small of her back. When her sobs turn to sniffles and she realizes where she was and doesn't show any signs of wanting to flee from the place, Naruto knows he did the right thing, for once. To hell with whoever comes in tomorrow and finds the bakery still in the process of being cleaned. To hell with the owner, to hell with the moron who was stupid enough to ever let her go.

"It was a boy," she says, after hours of quiet whispering about dreams. About the future. About what could happen, and what never did. About how maybe it was for the best that this all happened.

"You know, maybe now, I can let everything rest in peace. If I had the baby, I would probably be haunted by _him_ for the rest of my life. And I wouldn't have been able to meet new people. And I wouldn't have…"

She wrings her fingers together, shy, and unsure of what to say next. Hinata peers up at Naruto through her bangs. _I wouldn't have gotten to love you._

Suddenly, she hears a soft snore, and careens her head up to look at him.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, Hinata-chan?" He mumbles sleepily.

She must have exhausted him out. Hinata feels the corner of her lips turn into a smile.

"Never mind," she whispers.

And in a bold stroke that Hinata was sure Naruto never felt, she gives him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you, Naruto."

And she snuggles in the area between the couch and Naruto.

* * *

He comes back every day, and maybe not so much for those egg tarts anymore, because he's only been nicking off crumbs and doing more watching Hinata when he's there (and not just her breasts, on which pregnancy had no real visible effect on). Watch as she smiles at every customer as they approach the register. Watch her hips sway as she walks across the room to grab a loaf of pumpernickel for an elderly lady. Watch as she nips her lips in thought.

Naruto doesn't exactly know when it dawned on him, but it's definitely not about the egg tarts anymore.

Then one day, he doesn't come around.

He doesn't have to, because he's got her for the whole day (which made the owner livid about how _that boy_ had rubbed off on her, but Hinata only made an apologetic face and excused herself).

A whole day that went by like a dream, because his life has never been one, and Hinata thought his birthday should. A whole day that had started at the carnival and is going to end here, in his shabby little apartment.

When she brings out the cake that she had specially made for him, he can only stare and marvel at it, not unlike the first time Naruto laid eyes on her egg tarts. The first birthday cake he's ever had. And Hinata is true to her word; that butterfly feeling that spreads over him, he is sure that is pure happiness.

She had outdone herself this time.

Two tiers of white and fluffy cream, fancifully decorated with strawberries and oranges, cherries and kiwis. _Happy Birthday, Naruto_ in large, blue curlicue icing. It's nothing like the cakes in the display of the store. This one had love. Love that only Hinata could put into making it.

He's only faintly aware that Hinata's telling him to close his eyes, there's still something else. Naruto perversely wonders for a brief second if she's going to do something like present herself in nothing but satin ribbons, like he's seen so many times in those perverted manga that Ero-Senin would show him, but he decides that if she didn't, that'd be just fine. She's already been the greatest gift in his life.

"Okay, Hinata-chan." And he closes his eyes for about five seconds, eager and waiting for something to happen.

When it doesn't, he flutters his eyes open a millimeter, and he can see Hinata on her tiptoes, her eyes also closed. Naruto can see her every eyelash and her parted lips so close to his own.

They snap shut again just in time for their lips to faintly touch into a chaste kiss that ends too soon. A kiss so _Hinata_, so pure and afraid and innocent that he craves more.

Hinata starts to pull back, but Naruto grabs her wrists and she freezes, and he closes the gap between them again.

He isn't quite sure when this all started (back at the first _Irashaimase, _maybe?), but he knows he's in far too deep when he kisses her fiercely, hungrily, and tastes custard and vanilla, hope and love. It's strange, but he knows damn well that even though he's an expert at evasion tactics, he is not going to run from this.

Because he's not going to be her second mistake.

It's getting later, and the cake lays forgotten on the table.

And when Naruto wakes up in the morning, he'll say that it was way better than those perverted manga.

Naruto visits, but he never really stays for long. Not anymore.

He doesn't need to, because the only reason why he would stop by is to walk her home.

To _their _home.

Where she'd make him all the egg tarts that he'd want.

(At his coaxing, she'd eventually leave anyway. Start a dream of her own, and make pastries filled with all sorts of fruit and topped with sweet strawberries and oranges and mango instead of dull cakes of chocolate and faded colors.)

Where she loves him and make sure he's needed and wanted and doesn't feel so lonely. Because even if life is a bitch, she won't let him grin and bear it alone.

(Yeah, with a girl like that, it's no wonder he won't have to grin and bear it, Ero-Senin would say, earning him a good kick to where it hurts from Naruto.)

And Naruto doesn't leave. He doesn't walk out on her, doesn't ditch her after one (or two, or several, or hell, the next several thousand to come) night of passion.

He'll make sure she's loved, and loved right.

Because for once, Uzumaki Naruto, who never got things on time or ever got things right, never had it so right with her.

* * *

**A/N**: _They say that just human touch alone, can cure many ailments._

Again, thanks for reading. :) And don't hesitate to review.


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